[Question #13050] Massage/Strip Club encounter
2 months ago
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Hello all,
I appreciate the existence of this website and hopefully your answers can provide some much needed peace of mind. After a night of drinking my friends took me to a massage parlor and strip club on the same night where I was provided services by two different girls. In both situations, i was given protected oral and protected vagina intercourse. In both situations I can remember that the vaginas did not look nothing out of the norm (completely shaved and no sores or lesions present) and the penetrative sex lasted less than 5 min. Oral was the longer service but i noticed that there was no skin to skin contact as they were mainly focused on the head of the penis. The encounter happened 3 days ago and although my rational mind tells me nothing is wrong and this was a safe sex/low risk encounter, maybe a response from one of you experts can even make my anxiety go away. I am a married man and maybe my guilt is getting the best of me.
1. Although, i am certain that my risk for Gonorrhea, Chlamydia, HIV, Syphillis is non existent can you please reassure me I am correct and testing for this not required.
2. My penis was in a condom the whole time any handjob, oral, or penetrative sex occurred and no sores or lesions were present is there any risk for herpes or HPV. I read a lot about some of the symptoms that would happen and my brain went immediately to making me think that any possible area there was skin to skin contact is itchy. However i do notice that when im not wearing pants and focused on things that gets my mind off (like writing this question) those itchy symptoms are non-existent. Also i do have 1 inch of pubic hair in the areas that possibly had skin to skin contact, would this provide a lower risk?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
2 months ago
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Welcome to the forum. You chose Herpes as the category for your question, and most of those are answered by Terri Warren; but you ask about most or all STIs and I am replying, with Terri's agreement.
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Some questions can be pretty accurately answered from only the information in the title chosen for the question. In this case, I'll start by saying that STIs are not acquired by the typical kinds of events that occur in strip clubs. If there is no sex -- meaning penile penetration or oral-genital contact, there is little or no risk of any STI. As I read your question, however, your exposure went beyond the usual strip club events -- with both vaginal and oral sex. Happily, however, both these were condom protected. I agree entirely with your initial reaction, i.e. your "rational mind" comment. I too hope I can reduce your anxieties about these events.
1. Your risk indeed was near zero for gonorrhea, chlamydia, HIV and syphilis. It can never be truly zero -- condoms are highly protective -- but the chance of infection is zero for all practical purposes. Is testing "required"? That's up to you, not me. From a medical/risk perspective, I would say no. But reassurance to relieve worry and anxiety are valid reasons for testing even when the risk is zero. If my reassurance settles your fears, that's great. But if you're going to worry and wonder, and lose sleep over it all, then by all means get tested. A urine test for gonorrhea and chlamydia will be valid soon, any time 5 days or more after exposure. Syphilis and HIV tests need to wait 6 weeks for conclusive results.
2. Even with slight skin contact that you didn't notice, the chance of HPV and herpes is also near zero. HPV isn't a worry anyway: if you and your wife have had average sex lives (before you were a committed couple), then you both have had HPV and could still be carrying an infection that might someday result in health issues, most commonly an abnormal Pap smear. Even entirely unprotected sex with the women you describe in the club would not significantly increase the chance of such an event, or of someday having genital warts.
Your genital itching doesn't concern me at all. The amount or density of your pubic hair makes no difference in any of this.
If I summarize my advice in personal terms, if somehow I were in your situation I would not be anxious, would not be tested, and would continue unprotected sex with my wife without any worry of infecting her with anything from these events.
I hope these comments are helpful. Let me know if anything isn't clear.
HHH, MD
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2 months ago
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Thanks Dr. Handsfield, this has brought immense peace of mind. My main concern is the herpes aspect as there is a lot of ambiguity of what is virus shedding. Even though I made sure that the CSWs genitals didn’t have nothing of concern, the virus shedding aspect has made me question if I am ok. I do believe there was very minimal skin to skin contact but I’m not really informed on this subject. Is there any safe method or virtual zero method to be safe from this?
Also, I was consulted by a nurse that informed me that when a female is at there most contagious (with herpes) they are typically in pain and wouldn’t want to participate in sexual activities. Is there any truth to this, as this would make me believe my risk is extremely low.
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
2 months ago
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I would advise not worrying about viral shedding by people with herpes, but concentrate on the fact that the unprotected vaginal sex exposure with a partner known to have genital herpes has an average transmission risk of under once for every 1,000 events. Considering the statistical likelihood a partner like these has genital herpes (under half by far) plus the effectiveness of condoms in preventing it, your chance of catching HSV was a lot lower than this. ---
2 months ago
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Thanks Dr HHH, appreciate the comments and statistical data.
This is just for my own information and I hope you can provide some further clarity about virus shedding aspect. When it sheds is this something that can be contagious through skin to skin contact or through genital fluids?
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H. Hunter Handsfield, MD
2 months ago
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As your question is worded, I wonder if you have a common misunderstanding about skin-skin transmission of STDs. Many assume "skin-to-skin" transmission means ANY kind of skin contact. It does not. It means that during sex some infections are transmitted through fluids (like gonorrhea, chlamydia and HIV) and others by skin contact (HPV, HSV, syphilis). But all these are transmitted only during true se, usually meaning penile penetration. Stated another way, "skin-to-skin" does not imply an exception to sexual transmission; it refers to the mechanism of transmission during sex.
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Gental fluids might also transmit HSV, but most transmissions are from direct contact of an infected surface with an uninfected one.
That concludes this thread. I hope the discussion has been helpful. Best wishes and stay safe.
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